Name Awesome

Mela

#5,057 in 2025Girls' name

Carme with the suffix -ela

Mela has been given to 1,015 babies in the U.S. since 1905. In 2025 it ranked #5,057 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2019, with 55 recorded.

Babies named Mela, 2025

1 in 128,000

Mela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mela: meaning, origin, and history

Carme with the suffix -ela

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Mela means

Mela is formed from Carme with the suffix -ela.

Origin, language, and formation

Mela is used in Atayal and Galician.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Carme.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Galician, Mela is pronounced [ˈmɛlɐ].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,015 girls were recorded with the name Mela between 1905 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 55 in 2019; its best national rank was #2,134 in 1905.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,262 in 2020 to #5,057 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,043 in 2015 to #5,057 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Mela?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 128,000
26 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 61,800
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,057
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
88,382 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mela sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 88,382 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Melas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mela was born before 2011 — so the typical Mela is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
33.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
64.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
800
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 33.3% of all recorded uses (338).

Is Mela rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+336
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,795
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,014
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.70×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
47.3%
Peak was 2019 (55)
Years since peak
6
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,134
1905

Spellings of Mela

Mela is not the most common spelling — Pamela is, with 10.8% against Mela's 0.02%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Mela is used

Across 1910–2025, Mela was most concentrated in New Mexico — about 1 in 6,667 girls, against 1 in 303,408 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

015 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Mexico1 in 6,667
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Michigan1 in —
  5. 5New York1 in —
  6. 6Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Mela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Mela around the world

Where Mela ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2004–2025
    #2,605
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2011–2024
    #3,457
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Mela by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,057
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,795
Best rank ever
#2,134
1905
Peak year
2019
55 that year
First recorded
1905
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,015
Count in 2025
26

Names similar to Mela

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MeleMeleaMelekVelaMelBelaSelaMelizaAelaMelahMelanaMeliMelenaZelaNelaMeliahMelisDelaMeleahKeelaMelatMelodiXelaMellie

Sibling names for Mela

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Mela

Top names of 2019, Mela's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1905Girls' names starting with MGalician Girl NamesGalician Names